Malaika Temba’s jacquard weaving explores materials, communities and global trade — Colossal
“My practice exists in the tension between rest and labor, between intimate touch and the vast systems that shape our world,” says artist Malaika Temba. “Whether I’m making small weaves or large installations, I’m always asking what materials remember and who is remembered through them.”
Temba blends digital and analog processes to create layered textiles while exploring migration, labour, gender, global trade and everyday life. She uses Jacquard looms to create tender portraits of people and everyday urban scenes, from friends sitting together, to goods being delivered, to the hustle and bustle of daily urban life.
Tamba grew up in Saudi Arabia, Uganda, South Africa, Morocco and the United States. The Tanzanian-American artist told Colossal that while traveling between countries, “I’m always struck by how fabrics mark cultures, and how patterns, textures and materials tell you where you are through what people wear, how they use the cloth and the materials they have access to – whether found in nature, brought through trade or produced by industry.”
At art school, Temba learned to use a jacquard loom, which allowed weavers to create complex patterns using automated methods. Invented by Joseph Marie Jacquard in the early 19th century, these machines originally used a punched card system. By the 1980s, electronic versions reflected advances in computing technology, and today these complex mechanisms can be programmed to create almost any design.
“I learned to work with the Jacquard loom and became fascinated by its duality: the loom is one of the oldest forms of human coding technology, and the Jacquard is a machine capable of extraordinary innovation,” says Temba. The approach itself parallels the artist’s interest in materials and systems. Recently, she has become particularly interested in sisal, a cultivated plant and fiber closely associated with labor and trade in Tanzania. Sisal is commonly used to make durable products such as carpets, ropes, bags, etc.
The artist currently has an installation titled she weaves platinum On display at the North Carolina Museum of Art, includes three works set against lush wallpaper backgrounds. In this work, Temba employs sisal as a primary material and concept as she depicts individuals and communities “carrying stories of work, migration, and endurance across geographies through systems of production and exchange.”
After creating the main textile elements, Temba often manipulates the fabric by hand by breaking down areas, adding paint and screen printing. These layered elements add to the sense that the work is always in a state of flux – simultaneously building and undoing. “Over time, the works have become larger, more collage-like, and richer in texture, capturing multiple moments within a single woven scene,” she says.
Tamba’s work pays tribute to the lives and labor of the people of East Africa. “With Tanzania’s tense elections and Sudan’s ongoing war, I’m thinking a lot about visibility, dignity, and what it means to represent ordinary people at a time when their stories are often reduced to headlines or statistics,” she said. “Creating these works is a way of slowing down the narrative, insisting that everyday life—the gestures of care, the rhythm of work, and the persistence of women—has value and deserves to be seen.”
she weaves platinum The exhibit remains on display in Raleigh through fall 2026. Find more information on the artist’s website and Instagram.
